In the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

Members of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MPs) can be suspended from sitting in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

by the

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

for "disorderly conduct". The Speaker can order an MP removed from the house until the end of the day, but more often " names" an MP. When an MP is named, a vote is held in the house in the same way as a normal vote on legislation. If the vote is successful, the MP named is suspended for five days for a first offence and 20 days for a second offence, during which time they cannot take part in votes and debates in Parliament. They also have their pay suspended. Short exclusions are typically given for conduct within the chamber, including conduct intended as forms of protest—several short suspensions listed below involve interfering with the ceremonial mace. The

Commons Select Committee on Standards The Commons Select Committee on Standards is appointed by the House of Commons to oversee the work of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. History The committee was created on 13 December 2012 as one half of the replacements for the Commi ...

and the

Independent Expert Panel The Independent Expert Panel (IEP) is a body of the British Houses of Parliament which determines the appropriate sanction for Members of Parliament in cases involving bullying, harassment or sexual misconduct referred to it by the Parliamentary C ...

are empowered to investigate more serious misconduct and can recommend suspensions. Such suspensions of at least 10 sitting days and/or 14 calendar days trigger recall petitions under the provisions of the

Recall of MPs Act 2015 The Recall of MPs Act 2015 (c. 25) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that makes provision for constituents to be able to recall their Member of Parliament (MP) and call a by-election. It received royal assent on 26 March 2015 ...

. Members of the House of Lords can also be suspended. This occurred for the first time since 1642 in May 2009, when Labour peers

Lord Truscott Peter Derek Truscott, Baron Truscott (born 20 March 1959) is a British petroleum and mining consultant, independent member of the House of Lords and writer. He was a Labour Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1994 to 1999 and was elev ...

and Lord Taylor of Blackburn were suspended after a newspaper accused them of offering to change laws for cash. It was followed by the suspension of three more peers in October 2010, when Baroness Uddin, Lord Paul and Lord Bhatia were suspended following the Parliamentary expenses scandal.

List of MPs suspended from parliament

External links

References